no, no, no, i think it is pretty crystal clear where you stand on this. let me ask you about the criminal justice reform bill. because politico wrote this about tom cotton s opposition to it, noting this. on thursday, he stepped up his public potshots at what he s called a jailbreak proposal. it is a counter campaign that one fellow senator believes came at the request of majority leader mitch mcconnell. do you believe the majority leader is trying to quietly kill this bill in the lame duck? no, not really. because tom cotton s had this from day one. what we re talking about, is basically, creating a new sentencing system, that will give african-american male and hispanic male detainees a chance to get out of jail, earning their way out of jail, they ve been in jail 30, 40 years, for three nonviolent related drug offenses and change our sentencing system, to make it more humane, and more productive. tom has been on the other side
under my discretion, which you have under the supreme court s case law for sentencing, i m going to sentence you to the same anyway. defendants and the public, the families of the defendants understandably say that seems unfair. i thought the point of the jury trial was to determine whether i was guilty or not guilty on all those charges. if i m getting sentenced as exactly as if i were guilty on all the charges, that seems a violation of due process. i have written about the fairness and perceived fairness of the use of acquitted conduct at sentencing. judge mallett and i have written about it several times and made clear our concern about the use of acquitted conduct and how it affects the sentencing system. why i have said congress might need to look at it, although i have pointed out individual district judges can look at it, is because under the current system sentencing judges have
going to sentence you to the same anyway. defendants and the public, the families of the defendants understandably say that seems unfair. i thought the point of the jury trial was to determine whether i was guilt kri or ny or not guil of those charges and i am getting sentenced as if i was guilty on all the charges. it seems like a violation of due process. so i ve written about the fairness or the use of perceived fairness of acquitted conduct at sentencing. judge molette on my court and i have both written about it several times and made clear our concern about the use of a quilted conduct and how it affects the sentencing system. why i ve said congress might need to look at it, although i ve also pointed out individual district judges can look at it, is because under the current system sentencing judges have
despite the bill s good incentive the new incentive sentence for the prereleased credit could exacerbate the racial biases. unlike the previous criminal justice effort is not balanced with the necessary reforms to the federal sentencing system. i whole heartedly support provisions in the current version, such as banning shackling of women prisoners and enhance compassionate release. but unfortunately the good provisions do not outway the harmful provisions contained elsewhere in the bill. dana: congressman, could you tell me, how do you defend the bill especially talking about the bias that could exacerbate the problem, according to nadler. he said it may do this. he doesn t have a good answer. right now he is voting no so women will still be shackled while they give birth. he is voting no to compassionate release and fixing good time credit. he is voting no against the good he talked about on the
president bartlett talking about. that s a mix of rs and ds next to those names. the smarter sentencing act goes beyond the president s clemency powers to make what the l.a. times has called the most far-reaching changes in years to federal sentencing and parole kbi guidelines. a similar bill is currently in committee in the house, except the warm and fuzzy kumbaya moment with the president ended this week when it came to the politics, because no sooner had the president announced his effort to fix the sentencing system than some members of congress found reason to criticize it. on thursday the washington post reported on some legislators grumping about the president flexing his executive muscle to push sentencing reform. and the day before that, there was a republican house judiciary committee chairman bob goodlate la meanting what he called the president s, quote, blatant disregard for our nation s laws.